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Monday, February 13, 2012

I have been thinking about starting something like this for some time. What finally made my mind up was the proposal by some leftist democrats in Washington to create a government agency to regulate oil company profits on gasoline to a "reasonable" level. Unfortunately, I was reading "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand again at the same time and realized that these fools were using this book not as a warning but rather as an instruction manual. How did we end up with this type of person getting elected to any public office, much less the United States House of Representatives? Where in the Constitution,Bill of Rights or other Amendments does it even hint at the federal government having this level of authority? Do our "leaders" even read that hallowed document anymore?

From the current state of our country I would guess that the answers to both are a decisive NO followed by "Why should we be limited by a centuries old scrap of parchment? We know what is best for you so sit down and shut up." Even the Supreme Court is polluted with this type of thinking. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was quoted in an Egyptian interview as saying "I would not look to the US constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012." Isn't she sworn, like all government officials, to uphold and defend the constitution? Yet she, and three others on the Court completely ignore ALL the writings of the Framers of the Constitution in virtually all of the decisions they hand down. To understand the meaning of the document which is supposed guide the lawmakers and judges of this country (which isn't that hard to do in any case) you need only to read a few readily available documents. If you don't understand the terminology, and admittedly the meaning of some words and phrases have changed, a few more minutes of research will turn up the older meanings.

If this country is to survive the current set of problems we need to get back to what the Founding Fathers intended. And before you mention that some of them owned slaves, do some of that research I mentioned. You'll find that at least some of them were working towards freeing them, and that most of the signers didn't own slaves to begin with. What was intended was a loose collection of states with a relatively weak central government, the only jobs of which were to prevent tariff wars between the states, manage interstate and international relations, maintain a Navy and raise an army in time of need. Oh, and run a postal service, actually one of the few legitimate federal activities that occurs today. Nowhere in the Constitution does it allow for massive government agencies controlling virtually every aspect of trade and commerce (EPA, FDA, SEC, etc) or interstate law enforcement agencies (FBI, TSA, DHS, etc). Nor does it allow for requiring the people to purchase anything (Obamacare) or preventing them from purchasing something (DEA, BATFE). These agencies have invaded our lives to an extent that has Thomas Jefferson and George Washington spinning in their graves.

All I ask is that the people we elect to represent us follow a relatively simple rulebook for running this country. It would also be nice if they would stop writing new laws for a few years and compare the existing laws to that rule book, repealing any that don't have a Constitutional basis. Do the same for ALL government agencies. If a law or agency doesn't belong in the Constitution, it doesn't belong in this country.

If these problems weren't so serious this would be the funniest set of stories I have ever heard. Perhaps in a future post I can come up with something to make us laugh, but for now think on what has been written, research what has been said and decide for yourself how you can help save this country.